Twisted
by Thalia Castellan
Summary: One-short of Luke reflecting on why he made certain choices in his life. Luke/Thalia only for a few very minor moments.


_First I'd like to say that without RaechelleMarie, my very helpful beta reader, this story would be full of grammar mistakes and typos. Also, RaechelleMarie wrote the third reason in the fourth set, it was my idea, but she turned it into something less confusing then what I had. In short I want to say thank you, you've helped me allot._

_And lastly, the disclaimer......._

_Disclaimer: No, I do not own PJatO, and I doubt I ever will....._

_Twisted_

He was twisted; he knew that. He always had three reasons for doing just about everything in his life, and more often than not, these reasons didn't fit together very well. Yet that was how his life had been, and that was how he lived it.

To start with, he'd had three reasons for running away from home.

One: His father never visited him.

Two: The monsters would try to attack him every time he left his house, putting not only himself but his mother in danger.

Three: His mother scared him.

So he had run away, leaving behind all the things he knew, as well as all the hurt and anguish he faced.

He had agreed to gang up with Thalia for three reasons also, although one of them wasn't a sensible one.

One: She could fight, better then he could.

Two: Although it didn't hold true for spying, there was definitely was strength in numbers when fighting monsters.

Three: She was a good friend and companion. Plus, she was pretty.

They'd made a good team, even if their sarcastic remarks often led to a day of angry silence between them. Once she'd come along, Annabeth had helped to loosen the tension. He smiled as he recalled the reasons that had played through his head when he had welcomed Annabeth into their family.

One: Again, there was again strength in numbers.

Two: She was smart, normally the brains of both their plans and mad dashes from monster attacks.

Three: He had felt a certain obligation to her, to try and make her young life better than his had been.

As it had turned out, the decision to travel with Annabeth had more than payed off. She had been a quick warrior when they were been attacked, and being a daughter of Athena, she always had a plan to escape. He guessed it came with the package.

There were other times he needed to make choices, like when Grover had showed up and wanted to bring them to Camp Half-Blood. He'd agreed, but not without three well-thought-out reasons.

One: Anything could be better then seeing Annabeth and Thalia cold and hungry each night.

Two: Even if he hated his father for abandoning him, there was still some part of Luke that wanted to make him proud. Camp Half-Blood had sounded like a place you where he could do that.

Three: Thalia had threatened to leave without him. They both knew he wouldn't last long on his own, but then again, they both knew that she really wouldn't go without him. Still, it hurt him that she'd say that.

They had seemed like good reasons. They still seemed like good reasons, at least better then some of the reasons he'd had for other things. So he'd gone with Grover and the others. There had been other things he'd had to decide, but only moral questions. Was it right to steal when you had to in order to survive? He'd overcome those choices easily enough, reflecting back on them. They had seemed like nothing compared to his next big choice. Thalia's last stand.

He remembered the dreadful day on Half-Blood Hill, where he had left Thalia by herself to keep the monsters at bay. Now he wished he'd stayed at helped her fight them off. Perhaps if he had, she might still be with him. But he hadn't, and there was no changing that. And at the time he'd had three reasons to let her fight them herself.

One: He'd thought she could hold them off and come out alive.

Two: She'd hated the idea of having to run all the time. She'd always wanted to prove herself.

Three: Annabeth had needed him. She couldn't make it on her own, and Thalia had asked him to take her to safety. He couldn't ignore her wish. It would have been cruel when Thalia was always so concerned for Annabeth's well-being.

So he had run again, taking Annabeth with him and leaving Thalia. Thalia hadn't made it, and Annabeth didn't blame him. Grover didn't hold it against him. In fact, no one blamed him; no one except for himself. And there was no avoiding his own mind. He was always thinking, and so when Kronos had offered him a chance to avenge Thalia's death, he had taken it. And once again, he had three valid reasons for doing so.

One: He wanted to avenge Thalia. He felt it was his duty to. And even if he hadn't saved her, the gods should have.

Two: Hermes still didn't pay any attention to him. Kronos was paying him plenty of mind, so Kronos' wishes came before his father's.

Three: Kronos had promised to bring Thalia back, and once she was back not only could he be with her, he was sure she'd join his cause.

And so he had joined the Titans. The promise of a new age with a dark haired queen by his side had pressed him forward. He'd never stopped to think that revenge and avenging people weren't good reasons to turn against his family. But then he'd had to fight her, the person he'd thought would join him, the person he was avenging, and most importantly the person he loved. He'd tried to disarm her, wanted to talk to her without the threat of death looming over him, but he hadn't been able to. He knew now that he shouldn't have fought her, but at the time, he'd had his three reasons.

One: She'd run at him with a spear.

Two: He wanted to talk sense to her. She needed to know why he'd done what he'd done.

Three: If he didn't fight her, the monsters would, and they would see no problem in killing or injuring her.

Unfortunately for him, she'd kicked him off a cliff. So much for his chance to talk to her. He'd been upset to say the least, but the monsters told him that she had cried. So at least she hadn't been happy about sending him to what she had assumed would be his death. Yet he'd still lost his chance to talk to her. And then, of course, there came the decision to let Kronos take over his body. That had been a hard choice, but again his three reasons prevailed.

One: It was a way for Kronos to rise to power, causing his hope and dreams to happen sooner.

Two: Thalia hated him and had joined the Hunt. Annabeth had told him to leave her alone when he'd gone to her house, so there was no point in staying around for them.

Three: Kronos had said it was just temporary, so there was no harm in lending Kronos his body. And there was the cool side effect of becoming practically invincible.

And so he had become Kronos' vessel. He had a hard time remembering most of what happened well Kronos was using his form. All he had were many memories of screams of those Kronos tortured.

The last decision that made his list while he was alive was the choice whether or not to kill himself. His logic was much better for this decision than it had been in the past, but he hardly noticed. He'd just made the choice, but that didn't mean he'd had his three reasons.

One: He'd die when Kronos took on his rightful form anyway. This way it would be on his own terms.

Two: He wanted to prove to Annabeth that he kept his promises.

Three: Thalia would want him to save the hundreds of lives he could by dying. She wasn't impressed by the number he killed, but by the number he saved.

So his life had ended with a blade in his arm. Nothing fancy, not even his love to watch him die and bid him farewell. However, he was happy with his decision to save the gods, western civilization, and possibly even the world. It made him at least a little happier to know that he had not died in vain.

And then another choice and come his way. Fourteen years after he died, Hades gave him a choice: Either spend eternity happily in the underworld, or become Percy and Annabeth's second child: a son with the same name as his own. After making sure his memory would still be with him, Luke had chosen rebirth, but this time there was only one reason.

Thalia.


End file.
